Abstract: In order to explore suitable range of soil moisture content and salt content at seedling stage of cotton variety "Tahe No.2" in Xiaohaizi irrigation area, Xinjiang, two factors of water（mild and moderate water deficit）and salt（low salt, medium salt and high salt stress）were set up in pot experiments to study effects of different degrees of water and salt stress on growth and photosynthetic physiological characteristics of cotton seedlings．Under interaction of water and salt, salt stress was dominant factor inhibiting growth and photosynthetic characteristics of cotton seedlings．Compared with the control, at the same moisture content, growth and photosynthetic characteristics of cotton seedlings were not inhibited by low salt treatment, medium salt treatment significantly inhibited some growth indexes of cotton seedlings（P<0.05）, which reduced plant height by 21.12%～34.53%, leaf area index by 23.73%～59.70%, net photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductivity by 35.88% and 27.12%～28.33%, respectively．High salt treatment significantly inhibited almost all physiological indexes of cotton seedlings．Under the same salt stress, moderate water deficit was more favorable to cotton plant height, leaf area index, net photosynthetic rate and other indexes, effects under high salt stress were more significant than medium salt, and growth and photosynthetic characteristics of cotton in other water deficit had no significant difference．Moderate water deficit and medium salt stress were recommended for normal growth of cotton seedlings in test stage．